Blizzards and Broken Hearts
by Lady.of.Victory.Rising
Summary: A Family Matter... with a twist. Because of the snow, Luke doesn't check on the car, and Jess ends up walking back to Stars Hollow... with some unexpected consequences. Literati.
1. Part One

**Title-** Blizzards and Broken Hearts  
**Author- **Kàra  
**Rating-** T**  
Summary-** A Family Matter... with a twist. Because of the snow, Luke doesn't check on the car, and Jess ends up walking back to Stars Hollow... with some unexpected consequences.

**A/N-** Apparently, in addition to being an ACT goddess, I am also a weathertrix! I know all too well that it didn't snow in A Family Matter but you know what? My universe (well, ASP's universe, but she dropped and ran just in time for Paul Anka so I'm claiming ownership *ducks to avoid copyright violation lawsuit subpoena thrown at my head*), my rules. So now it's snowing. A lot.

* * *

It was snowing light, fluffy flakes when she left her dorm at Yale. By the time she reached the highway turnoff to Stars Hollow, it was a storm to be contended with. Even the heater in her car wasn't sufficient to keep her from feeling the cold outside radiating through the glass of the window. Rory hissed in irritation as her tires skidded on the slick road, causing her to momentarily swerve a little.

When she had regained control of her steering, she looked intently ahead, trying to see through the thick curtain of snow as far as possible. The Welcome to Stars Hollow sign was faintly visible a short ways ahead, and between her and the sign...

A huddled figure was stumbling through the snow at the side of the road, clearly having a rough time of it. Quite suddenly, the figure appeared to trip and slumped down face-first in the snow; he or she didn't get back up again. Lorelai's childhood warnings of Stranger Danger warred briefly with her innate tendency toward compassion, then Rory slammed on the brakes. She pulled over next to the prone figure, opened the door and stepped out, rushing over to where the young man lay in the snow.

The first thing she saw was the leather jacket. Her stomach dropped out from beneath her. The second thing she saw was the unruly mop of dark hair, longer than she remembered it, spilling out from beneath his knit ski cap. Her stomach suddenly returned, twisting itself happily into knots. The third thing she saw was his deathly pale face. Forget her stomach. Now her heart was going a thousand miles a minute, leaving her breathless and terrified for a thousand different reasons, one for each heartbeat.

"Jess?" she gasped. "Oh my god, what are you doing here?"

His eyes opened blearily, and she felt her panic increase when he stared blankly around, not focusing on her, not appearing to recognize her. There didn't seem to be a mind behind his gaze, and it shocked her, because one of the defining things about Jess Mariano had always been his sharp, analyzing stare.

"Jess, can you hear me?" she asked, shaking him a little.

"Cold..." he mumbled through stiff lips.

"Yes, I know it's cold," Rory said, channeling her mother for strength as she desperately tried to hide her fear. "Come on, we need to get you someplace warm." Quickly, she looped his arm around her neck and heaved him to his feet, staggering a little as she miscalculated how much of his own weight Jess could support. Gilmores didn't exercise, but after tonight, Rory was seriously considering taking up weightlifting, because Jess was _heavy_.

After a bit of a struggle and great deal of slipping around upon attempting to ascend the low embankment beside the road, Rory finally managed to get him into the car. Once he was settled into a semi-upright position in the passenger's seat, she hurried around to the driver's side, threw herself into the car, and cranked up the heaters. Then she put the car in gear and peeled away from the spot, going faster than was strictly safe on the slick roads as she hurtled over the last three miles to home.

As she drove, she talked to Jess. His frighteningly blank eyes were trained dully on her, with no sign that he actually understood anything of what he was saying, but at least he was focusing on something now. At least he was conscious. In some twisted kind of logic, Rory made up her mind that the sound of her voice would keep him that way, and so she talked about whatever she could think of for the four minutes it took her to reach the Crap Shack.

It felt much longer than four minutes to her; it felt like an eternity as, in her peripheral vision, she saw Jess' head sway dizzily while he continued to slump further and further down in the seat. Consequently, by the time they reached home, Rory was feeling more than a little hysterical. The first time she saw Jess Mariano in eight months, and she was afraid he might actually die on her! She hauled him bodily out of the car, pulling his arm over her shoulder again, supporting him with her arm around his waist. She pulled him up the steps and got him clumsily inside the house, only to be greeted by The Hollies blaring through the living room.

"Mom!" she screamed, partially to be heard over the music and partially because she was freaking out. "Mom, I need help!"

Panicked, Lorelai flew down the stairs, not knowing what to expect. Her eyes might actually have fallen out of her head when she saw her daughter supporting a barely-conscious Jess Mariano, who was soaked to the skin and shivering. She immediately reached over to turn off the stereo.

"Oh my god!" Lorelai exclaimed, hurrying to catch Jess up on the other side before his weight grew too much for Rory. "Come on, let's get him to the couch." Together, the maneuvered Jess to the sofa, his leaden feet impeding the process more than he actually helped. Once he was seated, slumping exhaustedly against the armrest, Lorelai turned to her daughter. "What _happened_?" she asked.

Rory shook her head. "I don't know... I found him on the side of the road. He's sick or something, I don't think he even knows who I am."

Jess chose that moment to slur, "Yes I do." He reached out to touch the sleeve of her coat; his hand shook. "_Rory_." His voice was hoarse and weak, barely audible, but he spoke her name a little more firmly, almost reverently.

"What happened, Jess?" Rory asked softly, ducking her head so that she could see into his eyes.

"Stupid car stalled..." he mumbled. Suddenly, a violent shiver ran through his body and he let out a pained moan.

"Are you hurt at all?" Rory asked.

He shook his head, and another heavy tremor wracked his thin frame. Worried, Rory reached out and brushed aside his too-long hair to feel his forehead. She pulled her hand back quickly, turning to stare at Lorelai. "He's burning up!" she said in a low voice. "What do we do?"

Lorelai took approximately two seconds to stare at the boy on her sofa. For a second, she wanted to kick him right back out into the snowstorm to fend for himself for having put in place the hollowness she had sometimes sensed in Rory since his abrupt departure. Then, despite her dislike for him, Lorelai went into Mom Mode.

"We need to get him out of those wet clothes," she said decisively. "Then he needs to take some aspirin or ibuprofen or something to take the fever down, and then he needs to sleep. Kid looks exhausted."

Rory nodded, then placed a hand on Jess' arm, trying to get his attention. He looked at her blearily. "Jess, Mom's going to take you to my room and we're gonna get you some dry clothes, okay?"

He blinked slowly a few times, which might have indicated that he was acknowledging her, or it might have just been reflexive. Either way, Rory would take what she could get right now. She helped him to his feet and turned support of him over to Lorelai, who guided him towards Rory's bedroom.

"I was just doing some laundry," Lorelai said, "I think one of your Yale sweatshirts is in the dryer; it should still be warm. Grab that, okay?"

"But if we're trying to get his fever down, shouldn't we avoid more heat?"

Lorelai shook her head. "You'd think so, but he's been out in the cold. It's more important to keep him warm right now than anything." Rory took that as her cue to sprint through the kitchen to the washing machine.

She returned a moment later, bearing the sweatshirt and a pair of Yale sweatpants, to find Jess lying on her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Lorelai had managed to remove his shoes, socks and shirt. The leather jacket was hanging over her desk chair. "Thanks, babe," Lorelai said distractedly. "Here, his jeans are soaked. Help me get them off."

Rory flushed scarlet, but complied. She glanced up at Jess' face and couldn't help but feel irrationally angry at him for causing all this trouble. "Never thought the first time I took your pants off would be when you had a zillion degree fever," she muttered irritably.

Lorelai snorted. "Grab some Tylenol from the cabinet in the kitchen, will you? And some water."

Rory did as she was told. Then, with some effort, the two of them managed to coax Jess into a sitting position. His expression was one of sheer exhaustion, but he obeyed when Rory told him to open his mouth. He swallowed the offered pills mechanically, then slumped back against Rory's pillow. His burning hand wandered, finding Rory's arm; he stared at her intensely for a few moments, and she met his gaze, encouraged by the recognition she found there. It was the first time since finding him by the side of the road that even a hint of his old, sharp gaze had shown itself. But then the awareness receded, and his eyes slid mostly closed as he slipped toward unconsciousness.

As was the norm, however, Jess Mariano always had to have the last word. "Love you, Rory," he whispered. "Always... love you..."

And then he fell asleep. Or possibly passed out. She wasn't sure.

Lorelai looked at her daughter, wondering whether she should address what had just been said. "Did he just...?" she asked softly.

Rory nodded. "He did." Her expression was stricken, and Lorelai decided not to press just yet. They could talk it over once Rory had.

"So..." Pause. "What now?" Another, longer pause. "In case you forgot, it's Friday night. What do we do?"

Rory continued to stare at Jess' pale face. "You go have dinner with Grandma," she answered firmly. "I'll stay here and take care of him."

"You sure you don't want me to stay, too?" Lorelai asked, both because she was desperate for an excuse not to have to tell her mother about her relationship with Jason, and because she was loathe to leave Rory alone with Jess Mariano, even when he was unconscious.

Rory shook her head. "No, you go. We'll never hear the end of it if we _both_ call off at the last minute."

"What do I tell Stali- er, your grandmother?"

"Just... give her the edited version of the truth," Rory answered. "A friend is sick, I'm taking care of him."

"Okay," Lorelai agreed, resigned. "I'll drop by Luke's on the way, let him know what's going on. He should know, right?"

Rory nodded. "Yeah, he should," she said. Her eyes had yet to leave Jess' face.

Concerned, but unable to do anything about it, Lorelai slid her feet into her shoes, pulled on her coat, and marched out the door, all the while mentally preparing herself for the tightrope walk that was weekly Friday night dinner. But first, a pit stop at Luke's...

* * *

**A/N2-** Okay, so I really suck for publishing this instead of working on Paperthin Hymn, but I'm not really in the mood for Jess taking care of Rory right now. Instead, my brain is giving me all these scenarios in which Jess needs Rory's help/love/support in one way or another. This is the end product. New updates of Always, PH, and TMF will be forthcoming, I promise. Maybe I'll even work on Glittery, if I get inspired. In the meanwhile, I don't plan on this being longer than maybe seven chapters or so, so at least I'm not embarking on a major project here...


	2. Part Two

**A/N-** I'm planning on seven chapters... mainly because I like the number seven. If it takes more, or I somehow find more story to tell, well then it takes more. If it takes less, or if I decide to make the chapters super-long, well then it takes less. I know where the story is going to end up, I just need to take it there. Enjoy!

* * *

"Lucas Orion Danes!"

Luke looked up to see the steaming Lorelai enter the diner. Everything about her screamed _Proceed With Caution_, and he was grateful that the unexpected snowstorm had all but emptied the diner. "Orion?" he asked good-naturedly, hoping to distract her from whatever it was that was making her turn scarlet around the collar. "Where the hell did you get Orion?"

"Wild guess," she snapped. "Luke, would you like to know who's in my house with Rory at this exact moment?"

A vague idea, perhaps brought on by his recent contact with his sister, formed in Luke's head, and it made sense with Lorelai's current state of freaking out, but he dismissed it. That was highly illogical. "Who?" he asked, curious.

"Your evil nephew!"

Oh. Maybe not so illogical. "Jess?" Luke uttered, taken aback. "Jess is back?"

Lorelai nodded, pacing furiously. "Yes, he most certainly is. And you know what the real kicker is?" she demanded. "The little punk is out cold with a fever of 103, so I can't even kick his ass for breaking Rory's heart! Well, not without feeling really guilty for beating up a sick guy."

Luke's eyes bugged out a little. "Jess is sick?"

"Yes, I said that already! Get with the program, Polly!" Lorelai said, exasperated. "Kid passed out in Rory's bed about six seconds after we got him into some dry clothes. But not, of course, before going and proclaiming undying love for my daughter! God, can't the little jerk just leave well enough alone?"

Luke was now seriously lost. "He said... I... Jess... _what_? Okay, start from the beginning."

Lorelai took a deep breath, forcing herself to be calm. "Rory found Jess walking along the highway when she was coming home for the weekend. She brought him home. He was more or less catatonic and had a high fever so we gave him aspirin and dry clothes. Now he's unconscious and I have to go to Friday night dinner and Rory's alone with him and everything's all sucky."

"I'm going over there," Luke said decisively. He turned to the only patron in the diner, and said menacingly, "Get out!"

"But Luke, I haven't finished my ham-and-swiss on rye..." Kirk whined.

"Kirk!"

"Going!"

The diminutive man leapt to his feet and raced for the door. Lorelai, however, had other ideas, grabbing Kirk's elbow and preventing him from leaving. "Hey Kirk?" she said in a lethally sugar-coated voice.

"Yeah?" Kirk asked.

"If one word of this goes beyond the walls of this diner, I swear that you will not live to see morning. And I'll tell your mother."

Kirk whimpered in terror, and Lorelai deemed her threat sufficient, releasing him. He rubbed his elbow, wincing, and fled the diner.

Luke grinned and leaned over the counter to yell into the kitchen, "Caesar, we're shutting down! There's no point staying open with the weather like this! I've got to head out for awhile, so close up, will ya?" Caesar yelled back something unintelligible, which Luke took for assent. Grabbing his well-worn olive coat, he followed Lorelai out the door and into the storm.

Lorelai smiled. "Thanks, Luke," she said.

His eyes narrowed in confusion. "For what?"

"Just... thanks." They stood looking at each other through the swirling flakes for a few moments, then Lorelai remembered herself. "I, uh, I should go. Dinner with the Hitlers."

Luke nodded. "Yeah. Go. I'll make sure the kids are okay." Lorelai smiled at him and departed, while Luke thought over the news he had just been presented with. Jess, back. He would bet cold hard cash his sister had something to do with Jess showing up out of nowhere. Now wasn't the time to worry about that, though; Jess was sick. It was time to call up those non-existant parenting skills...

* * *

"Lorelai, hello," Emily said. "Where's Rory? I thought you two were arriving together?"

Lorelai shook her head, eager for a deflection. "Uh, she couldn't make it after all," she said.

"Ugh, you smell like coffee!" Emily exclaimed.

"Well, I didn't have any," Lorelai said, and for maybe the first time in her life that was actually true.

"It's so strong!"

"Uh, Mom? I really don't like you sniffing me!" She backed away, handing her coat off to the maid. "Where's Dad?"

Emily sighed, leading her to the living room. "He's in Manhattan, having dinner with clients. He just called. They're at some restaurant near Times Square, he says Times Square just keeps getting cleaner and cleaner. They didn't stumble across one prostitute the whole night!"

"Oh yeah, I heard the Disney Company had them all killed," Lorelai quipped.

Her mother gave her a disapproving frown and a head shake. Then she said, "Where did you say Rory was?"

"A friend of hers is in town and they, uh, got sick," Lorelai said nervously, hoping the half-truth would stand up to examination. "She stayed home to take care of them."

Emily narrowed her eyes. "A friend? What friend?"

Lorelai shrugged. "Oh, just a friend. From... out of town."

"Well, I _gathered_. What is this friend's _name_?"

Out of equivocations. "Um... Jess?" Lorelai said, as if it were a question, praying that Emily wouldn't recall the disastrous meeting with Luke's unruly nephew. But when her mother's dark eyes narrowed in a tell-tale example of dragon-lady spite, she knew all hope was lost. Busted.

"Jess? Is this the same horrible boy she was dating last year?"

Lorelai nodded, wincing on the inside. "Yep."

"My god, why on earth should Rory feel she owes him _anything_, least of all nursing him back to health, after the way he left so unceremoniously?" Emily exclaimed. "That's what doctors are for!"

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Lorelai said, "But I agree with you, Mom. You know Rory, though, she-"

"I mean, for god's sakes!" Emily cut her off. "The boy treated her horribly and now here she is playing- playing at being Clara Barton, of all things! What's gotten into the girl!"

"You know how Rory can be," Lorelai tried to cut through Emily's tirade. "She always just wants to-"

"And missing Friday night dinner for it? She cannot possibly think that this is okay! My god, I ought to-"

"Mom!" Lorelai shouted, cutting Emily off successfully at last. "I'm dating Jason!"

* * *

When Luke entered the Crap Shack about an hour and a half after his encounter with Lorelai, the house was dark except for a light in the kitchen. He peered into Rory's room and found the young woman on her bed, curled up next to Jess under the covers. His nephew looked pale and thin, and his sleeping face was troubled and shiny with dissipating sweat. Rory was playing with his hair, watching him nervously as her fingers ran through his dark curls. When the door creaked a little on opening, she looked up and put a finger to her lips. She extracted herself carefully and moved to join Luke in the kitchen, closing the door softly behind her.

"How is he?" Luke asked softly.

"His fever finally broke," Rory whispered. "But then he was cold and I couldn't get him to stop shivering..."

Luke nodded. "I've heard that can happen." Then he sighed, shaking his head. "It's weird to see him sick."

"Tell me about it," Rory said, glancing at the door.

"He's always been so healthy..."

She nodded mutely.

"I mean, even when he was a little kid, he was always really, uh, healthy."

Rory nodded again, still not speaking.

Luke swung his arms, and the weight of the tupperware in his right hand gave him something to say in response to her mute silence. "I, uh, made soup," he said.

Rory burst into tears.

Luke panicked. "Rory? Hey, hey, don't cry," he said. Awkwardly, he crossed the space between them, and put his arms around her nervously. "Shh, shh," he said soothingly, patting her back a little uncomfortably. She took a few deep, hiccuping breaths and nodded, stepping back from him.

"Sorry, Luke," she mumbled, sitting down at the kitchen table and staring at her hands, folded in her lap. "It's just... I've missed him. I've really, really missed him." She looked up at him, eyes glittering palely in the thin light. "Have you missed him?"

Taking a deep breath, Luke nodded, joining her at the table. "Yeah. I have."

"I've been picturing this for so long, just wondering what would happen if I ever saw him again. I had this great rant planned and everything; I was going to give him that whole 'hell hath no fury' treatment and make him feel like absolute pond scum. And then I was going to ask if we could at least be friends, because even though he's a slimy little jerk for leaving... I missed him too much. And then, of course, he shows up and he pulls something like _this_, practically passes out on my floor, and now I can't even be mad at him until he's at least able to sit upright and even then I probably won't be because... because I..." She took a few quick, shaky breaths, visibly trying to pull herself together. "Because I love him. I can't believe it; everyone says I'm supposed to hate him, but I don't. I still love him.

"And even then, I don't get to use that, because the jerk went and said it first! God, couldn't he have just fainted and let me keep on being mad at him? That's just like Jess- let me work up a fantastic rage, and then he has to go and do something that makes me forgive him so easily... it's annoying is what it is."

Luke stared in amazement, hearing the girl- no, really, she was a young woman now- the young woman he had known for so much of her life pouring her heart out to him, of all people. Not to her mother, or to one of her girlfriends. It was only in him, in the only other person in all of Stars Hollow who cared about Jess Mariano, that she confided. He wondered if she chose to tell him this simply because she needed to get it off her chest, or because she thought he might understand what it was like to be scared out of her mind with worry for the boy in the next room. Maybe it was both.

"That's Jess," he said weakly. "Annoying." He felt as though Rory had given him a gift; though a naturally polite girl, and as vivacious as her mother, in many ways she was as reserved as Jess. This rare insight into what she was really thinking was precious. The need to reciprocate prompted him to add, "Sometimes I look at that kid and it's like looking at Jimmy." He sighed. "And then other times he'll say something and for a second I think it's me talking."

Rory looked at him. Her eyes were still wet, but she was smiling. "He really cares about you," she said. "He never said anything outright, but I could tell. He looks up to you."

"And I let him down," Luke said, studying the table top. "He was helpless, and I let him down."

"You did the best you could," Rory said reassuringly, but Luke shook his head.

"No, no I didn't. He pushed my buttons and I lost my temper and kicked him out of the house when I should've helped him."

Rory let out a breath. She hadn't known that. She had known about Jess' trouble in school and about the enigmatic Jimmy Mariano turning up out of the blue, but she hadn't realized that Jess had actually become homeless. "That's all done with," she said slowly, and realized that it was true. "We need to stop obsessing on the past. It hasn't done me any good this last year. It hasn't helped me get over him; all it's done is made me really, really mad at him. And I don't think that's going to last too long once he can actually walk under his own power. So I just think maybe we should just let go of what happened last year. Let's just figure out how to go on from here, if we can."

Luke nodded. "Sounds like a good plan. Let's hope Jess cooperates."

"Knowing Jess, we'll have to drag him kicking and screaming the whole way."

Despite the seriousness of the current situation, Luke laughed, and was relieved to hear Rory joining him.

* * *

**A/N2-** Next time: Jess wakes up!


	3. Part Three

**A/N-** I've been listening to Mr. Brightside on repeat for about six hours. I shouldn't do that. It's bad for my sanity.

Maybe I should switch to David Bowie, just to change it up. Nah, falling back on an old favorite- Joy Division. Good writing music. Not as good as Muse (which, frankly, is kind of cliche, for more reasons than just the name) for making the words come clean, but far more inspiring, creatively.

* * *

When Lorelai arrived home, she tiptoed into Rory's room to find an oddly sweet tableau. Jess, of course, was occupying the bed, with a sleeping Rory curled up next to him, apparently trying to impart to the shivering young man some of her body heat once more. To her great surprise (and greater relief), Luke was fast asleep in an armchair at the foot of the bed. Lorelai observed the three of them for a moment, then went to retrieve an afghan from the living room. Carefully, so as not to wake him, she tucked the woven blanket around Luke, then backed out of the room and ascended the stairs, intent on getting some sleep of her own after what had turned out to be a particularly stressful Friday night dinner...

* * *

Jess woke slowly, the feeling of being sore deep down in his muscles dragging him gradually into consciousness. He didn't open his eyes yet, first allowing his other senses to adjust. He took stock slowly. There was a sour, thick taste on his tongue that made him long for water. Or beer. Or, hell, he'd settle for apple juice right now! The sick flavor was slightly reminiscent of the taste of hangover, as was the feeling of dizziness, despite not having even opened his eyes yet. Jess elected not to tempt fate just yet, instead focusing on the throbbing throughout his body.

Suddenly, he realized that there was a lithe, distinctly feminine body pressed up against him. He decided, for as long as it lasted, to pretend that it was Rory beside him. It would just about kill him once the illusion was shattered, but it would be nice while it lasted. He could practically smell Rory's unique scent, apples and soap and something so _Rory_ he couldn't stand it...

He wasn't imagining it.

His eyes popped open.

Rory was here. Her arms were around him, and she was lying as close to him as physically possible, her face buried in his shoulder. She was fast asleep.

Holy shit.

He looked around, realizing that he was in Rory's room in the little yellow house in Stars Hollow. Luke was asleep in a chair across the room, wrapped up in a blanket. "Damn," Jess whispered hoarsely. He didn't recall how he had wound up here. The last thing he could remember clearly was his shitty car breaking down on the highway, and the decision to walk the distance to Stars Hollow, rather than wait around and pray someone would stop and offer him help. Vaguely, he could call up memories of the bitter cold and trudging through the snow to the point of exhaustion, but after that... everything was blurry and different shades of hot and cold.

His expletive, quiet though it had been, was enough to wake Rory. She shifted away from him languidly, stretching. This bed was not made for occupation by two.

"You're awake," she said, sliding her feet out from under the covers to sit on the edge of the bed, studying him intently. "How do you feel?"

"Bad," Jess responded.

Her hand was suddenly on his forehead. She shook her head, frowning. "You're warm again," she said. "We managed to get your fever down, thank god, but you've been running kind of hot and cold through the night." She blushed suddenly. "When I fell asleep, you were shivering. The electric blanket wasn't really helping. That's why I was... you know..." Her already scarlet complexion turned still darker.

He nodded, then decided that excessive head movement was a bad idea. "Right. What, uh, how did...?"

"What happened?" she guessed. "I found you wandering along the side of the road, brought you home, and you passed out on us."

"Luke's here," he said softly, looking at his sleeping uncle.

Rory smiled slightly. "He was really worried."

And if there was a way to make him feel guiltier and worse about himself than he already did, well... Jess sighed, sitting up. "Thanks for fixing me up, I guess," he said, avoiding her eyes. "I'll just get out of your hair."

Immediately, Caretaker Rory was swapped with Mean, Stubborn Rory. "Oh no you don't!" she said firmly, putting her hands on his shoulders and all but shoving him back down into the (admittedly extremely soft and welcoming) pillows. "You are not leaving this house until you are back in perfect health. Admittedly," she added, almost as an afterthought, "that might take awhile, because I have every intention of putting you in traction after I nurse you back to health. And if I don't succeed, I'm sure that Mom and Lane are right behind me to try their hand."

"Not to mention the entire town of Stars Hollow," Jess said, mostly to himself.

Rory shook her head. "Not the entire town. I bet Luke will abstain, and Miss Patty always had a soft spot for you."

"That's so comforting," Jess muttered sarcastically.

"First things first, though. Luke made soup for you last night, but you were a little too unconscious to eat it, so I'll reheat some for you," she said, bustling to her feet. "You stay right here where Luke can keep an eye on you."

"Luke's asleep."

"But I'm pretty sure you're not strong enough to support your own weight right now, so the sound of you falling to the floor would wake him up pretty quickly."

"Fair point," Jess said, feeling too exhausted to argue.

He heard the refrigerator open, then looked across the room to find a different pair of blue eyes, these belonging to his uncle, watching him. "So," Luke said. "You're awake."

Jess nodded.

"How you feel?"

"Like shit."

"Figured. Fevers take it out of you. Lorelai said your temperature was 103 last night."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"Huh."

Luke ran a hand through his hair. "What are you doing here, Jess?"

"Came to get the car you stole from me," Jess said.

Luke snorted. "Figures. Liz call you?"

"Yep."

He sighed. "Figures. I'm gonna go yell at her for that. Then I'm gonna come back here, and when you're feeling better I'm gonna yell at you for being a moron."

"Which time?"

"Probably all of them."

Jess nodded. "Good to know. I'll prepare myself, then."

"I'm gonna get out of here, then," he said, getting to his feet. He walked to the door of Rory's room, then hesitated, turned back, and shot Jess one last glance. "I'm glad you're okay," he said. And then he walked away.

* * *

Lorelai was sitting on the front porch, watching the sun rise through the trees, a cup of coffee clutched between her hands. Luke checked on his watch, realized he still had fifteen minutes before he needed to be at the diner, and sat down next to her.

"It's a little early for you to be awake," he commented.

She nodded. "Had a hard time sleeping," she said. Luke didn't need to ask why. In typical Lorelai deflection-style, she avoided the obvious subject, probably with the intention of working her way around to it counterintuitively. "How'd you sleep? That chair is tiny, and you're not exactly a small guy," she inquired.

"Okay," he said. "I just felt better being where I could keep an eye on him. On both of them."

Lorelai smiled half-heartedly. "I know his leaving was really hard on you," she said sympathetically.

"Yeah," Luke conceded. "It's weird, having him come back around. I was really mad at him when I threw him out, but you know what? Even though the kid's a complete pill, it was kinda nice having him around."

Lorelai nodded, not sure what to say. It was apparent that Luke truly cared about his nephew, and from what she had witnessed the night before, she had her suspicions that her daughter might very well still have feelings for him, despite all her protests of being "fine" for the last eight months. She didn't understand what it was about the quiet, angry young man that drew them to him so strongly, but the fact that two most important people in her life cared so much for him was enough to make her decide to hold off on the ass-kicking until she could fully assess the situation. It was a strange conclusion to draw, _especially_ if you knew Lorelai "Shoot First" Gilmore, but the look in her daughter's eyes the night before as she had looked at Jess Mariano was enough to make her stop and take notice.

* * *

"Soup!" Rory announced a few minutes later, presenting him with a steaming bowl of chicken noodle. She scooped up a spoonful and held it waiting.

Jess grimaced. "Rory, I _can_ feed myself," he protested.

She shrugged. "I wasn't sure. You couldn't even stand up without both me and Mom holding you up last night." Reluctantly, she surrendered the bowl of soup and the spoon. "Careful, it's hot."

He glared at her, and ate a spoonful of the soup. He stopped himself from making a face as his tongue was burned. In all honesty, he was too grateful for the food to really care if he actually seared his entire tongue away. Wasn't like he had much use for it anymore. Tongues were only good for talking and for kissing, and without Rory as a semi-permanent facet in his life, he had no intention of really doing either if he could avoid it...

Within a minute, the soup was gone, and Rory's eyes were wide. "Since when are you a Gilmore?" she asked.

Jess shrugged and said nothing.

"Jess," she said softly, "when was the last time you ate?"

He shrugged again.

"Oh Jess..." Rory said, a soft, sad expression on his face. He hated himself for not being able to make it go away. At the same time, he was slightly irritated with her; he didn't want her pity. Suddenly, however, she transformed again from Sympathetic Rory to Industrious Rory. "I'll get you more soup," she said firmly. This she did, and he downed the second bowl with equal fervor, pretending not to notice the look in her eyes as she watched him. It was amazing to him that she was able to put aside her hatred of him for long enough to feel sorry for him.

Once he was done eating, she took the bowl from his hands.

"You cut your hair," he said, a little smile on his face.

Rory resisted the temptation to say what she wanted to, which was, _Do you like it?_ Instead, she pushed him gently back against the pillows. "Yes, I did. Now, you sleep," she said firmly. "I want you well-rested and fully recovered for the ass-kicking I'm going to administer later."

"Looking forward to it," he said, yawning. It was the first time he'd eaten in three days, the first time his stomach had been _really_ full in at least two weeks, and the first time he'd felt safe since leaving Venice Beach. If he'd been a little less out of it, he might have found it odd to feel safe in a house containing two Lorelai Gilmores, both of whom probably hated his guts, but he did. He was too sleepy to think it over...

Jess was out like a light within minutes, and Rory looked down at him with a sad little smile on her face. She brushed a tuft of dark hair out of his eyes, then walked into the living room, taking the time to shut her bedroom door behind her.

* * *

Lorelai was putting on her shoes while attempting to navigate the stairs, a difficult task to say the slightest, when Rory emerged from her bedroom. She stumbled down the last couple steps, causing Rory to put a finger to her lips and shush her. "You'll wake him up!" the young woman hissed.

"You're really taking this whole Mother Teresa thing seriously, aren't you?" Lorelai asked.

Rory looked anywhere but at her mother. "He needs _someone_ to take care of him," she said firmly. "He's so thin, he hasn't eaten in days. And you saw the state he was in last night..."

"Hey, you don't have to defend anything to me!" Lorelai assured her, hands raised placatingly. "You do, however, owe me big time."

"What for?" Rory asked.

"For taking Mom's attention off your Florence Nightingale project. I told her about me and Jason to stop her harping on about you and Jess."

Rory groaned. "Why did you even tell her about Jess in the first place?"

"You know how she can be!" Lorelai protested. "She ambushed me, made me go temporarily insane, with her questioning and her prodding and her dragon lady stare, and I slipped up and then she asked about the name of the friend and I just... well... you know how it happens sometimes. So I told her about seeing Jason to keep her from telepathically killing you. Or more likely Jess, but from what I saw last night, you were close enough to him that the psychic bolt from the blue might have killed you by extension."

Rory blushed. "He was cold," she mumbled. In order to provide a distraction, and something to do with her hands, she handed Lorelai her black coat and the fluffy pink scarf. "So how'd Grandma take the news that you're dating Grandpa's business partner?"

"Not well. She let out one horrified exclamation, then hardly said a word the rest of the night except to give me that 'you just wait until your father gets home' look. Next Friday night is going to be a charming and pleasant affair, I'm sure."

Rory gave her arm a sympathetic pat. "And you will handle it with your usual grace and _savoir faire_. You have to get to the Inn?"

Lorelai nodded. "Just for awhile, but I should be done around one or two. Wanna do something?"

"Maybe..." Rory said, glancing at her closed bedroom door.

Lorelai decided to play it cool for the time being around the Jess subject, but couldn't resist asking, "What are your plans for the morning?"

Rory shrugged into her own coat. "Westons for coffee, then the bookstore, then back here, hopefully before Jess wakes up." She glanced at the bedroom door once again, frowning. When he did wake up again, hopefully healthy enough to survive a serious conversation, things were going to get interesting...

* * *

**A/N2- **Longest chapter yet! Are you pleased? I'm not too happy with the last scene, but after having rewritten it three times, I pretty much gave up.


	4. Part Four

**A/N-** Sorry this took awhile to get up. I went to a Renaissance Faire yesterday (and I swear to god, this guy who looked EXACTLY like TJ was hitting on me shamelessly... no joke...!) and it was this extremely long drive and on the way home I was so tired that I laughed for almost an hour straight... thank god for my friends who kept me laughing which kept me from falling asleep at the wheel... it made my stomach hurt but oh well... Point is, I've been a tad preoccupied. Now for a chapter!

Also, I'm reasonably sure that the purpose of the Firelight Festival is actually as I've described in this chapter. After all, look at Nag Hamadi's original airdate- RIGHT before V-Day! There's no way that timing was accidental!

* * *

Rory stopped in at Weston's, requesting and promptly receiving her coffee and cherry Danish. Ann, the sweet middle-aged woman who had taken over the business after Fran's death, gave her a strange smile. "How are you, Sweetheart?" she asked probingly.

"Fine, thanks," Rory responded, quickly swallowing the sip of scalding coffee she had taken before Ann had questioned her.

"Are you sure?" Ann asked, looking dubious.

Rory nodded. "Yes, of course." She had no idea why Ann, who- though a lifelong member of the town that had loved her and helped to raise her- really didn't know her all that well, would take such an active interest in her immediate wellbeing. It was strange. She said a quick goodbye and escaped onto the street.

She was crossing the town square with the intention of dropping in on Andrew at the bookstore when Lane exploded out of nowhere, grabbing her arm and dragging her up the steps of the gazebo where, although in plain sight, they could speak without being overheard. "Lane?" Rory exclaimed, once the shock of her abrupt relocation had subsided. "What are you doing here? I thought you were still at Yale!"

Lane shrugged. "Paris," she said.

"Oh. Makes sense."

"I figured I might as well come back with you for the long weekend," she explained. "But that's not the point. The point is, everyone knows!"

"Everyone knows what?" Rory asked.

"Everyone knows that Jess is back and apparently in your house!"

Rory's mouth dropped open. "What?"

Lane sighed. "I was about to go into your house last night, but Babette abducted me and demanded information. Apparently she saw you coming home with Jess last night; she said something about you carrying him into the house, which confused me, but she was questioning me and she didn't get too in-depth. But the whole town's been buzzing about it all morning!"

Rory grimaced. "Great," she pouted. Then she sat back with a sigh, deciding to relinquish her own troubles for a moment. She didn't want to think about it. "So, where did you stay last night? I mean, you weren't at my house. Did you and your mom make up?" Rory asked hopefully.

Lane shook her head, and Rory regretted mentioning Mrs. Kim at the look of pain in her best friend's eyes. "No. Actually, I crashed with Gil and his wife," she explained.

"Oh really? How was that?"

Lane grinned. "Waking up to Slipknot blasting through the house was a very new experience."

"Ooh, Gil's a metalhead?" Rory asked, holding back a smile.

"Nope. Sylvie is- that's his wife. And I didn't even _know_ they made Avenged Sevenfold t-shirts for infants until today."

Rory giggled. "Really? That's hysterical!"

Lane nodded, then leaned forward conspiratorially. "So... what Babette saw, or said she saw... is it true? Is Jess back?"

"Yes. He's back," Rory said quietly, mindful of the few townsfolk who were strolling around.

"Oh my god," Lane breathed. "What was he doing at your house?"

"He's at my house because when I found him wandering along the side of the highway last night, he had a 103 degree fever and was delirious. I couldn't let him stay out there in that condition, so I brought him home. Mom and I got his temperature down, so he's coherent now, at least."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"You are a much better person than I am," Lane said solemnly. "If it had been me, I'd have let him freeze his ass off in the snowstorm after what he did."

Rory shook her head violently. "No, Lane, don't do that," she said fiercely. "Don't make him the villain here. I've had too much of that from Mom and from the town and from just _everybody_. I'm really angry with him, I won't lie. He just left without a word, and I know just how bad that was. Believe me, I know better than anyone how bad it was. But I was there for what happened between us, too." Rory didn't know it, but her face was betraying for the first time all the hurt and loneliness she had felt so keenly for so many months, and it shocked Lane speechless. The look was gone quickly, but it made an impression.

"You shouldn't blame yourself for him leaving," Lane cautioned.

"I'm not," Rory said, though secretly she had to wonder if she'd been part of his motivation for fleeing. "I've just... I've thought about what he and I had, a lot. I kind of see how it all built up over time, and it wasn't his fault. And I'm really, really sick of everybody blaming him for it all, when it's wasn't _just_ his fault."

"Well, as long as you acknowledge that and thoroughly kick his ass before he leaves this town..." Lane said.

"Oh, I intend to," Rory said, staring pensively out at the snow-covered square. The two friends sat quietly for a few minutes before Rory said, "I should probably go back and check on him. I left a note that I was going out, in case he woke up before I got back, but honestly, I wouldn't put it past him to just sneak out on me anyway." She looked a little irritated at the thought. "You want to come back to the house with me?"

Lane was tempted by the invitation, considering the hot cocoa (with more marshmallows than was healthy) that was sure to accompany her acceptance, but ultimately, she knew that her best friend needed time alone with the infamous Jess Mariano in order to sort out their history. Lane knew Rory needed closure at the very least; her unhappiness, which she had done a good job of hiding, had not gone completely unnoticed. There had been times over the past few months when a particular song would come on the radio, or she would pick up a copy of Oliver Twist and her eyes would go all soft and sad. This encounter would be good for her, Lane hoped.

"Can't. I need to meet up with Zach and Brian and figure a few things out, band-wise," Lane excused. "But you're coming out to the Firelight Festival tonight, right?"

Rory winced inwardly. Until Lane had mentioned it, Rory had completely forgotten about the Firelight Festival, the annual bonfire celebration held in honor of: what else? Valentine's Day. Supposedly the most romantic day of the year, and Rory, instead of being able to share the festival with someone special, was instead going to be, presumably, sorting through her extreme amounts of baggage with her flaky, unpredictable ex. She really wished, in that moment, that Lane had not mentioned the festival. Until that moment, she hadn't remembered it was Valentine's. The knowledge, however, made the prospect of dealing with Jess that much more painful.

"I guess," Rory replied. "I might be busy, but I'm sure Mom will want to go, so..."

"Right," Lane said, unsure why her friend's face had suddenly crumpled with sadness. "Well, I'll see you later, then."

* * *

The fuzzy clock on Rory's desk, when Jess glanced at it, read 3:30 p.m. He had been asleep most of the day. Surprisingly, he felt much better than he had when he'd awakened the first time. The fact that his stomach was full for the first time in far too long had to have helped, he supposed. He was still achey and a bit tired, but he didn't feel so dizzy or weak anymore.

It only took him two minutes to locate his clothes in the dryer and change into them out of Rory's Yale things (which, frankly, were making him feel ridiculous). He pulled his messenger bag over his shoulder and headed for the door. He would find a pay phone, use his spare change to call a tow truck to take his car to Woodbridge or Hartford to be fixed, and then he would just-

"So that's it?" Rory demanded from the living room, startling him. "You're just going to leave?"

Jess sighed, hand still on the doorknob. "I thought you were gone," he said.

"You didn't answer me," she said harshly, coming to stand in the doorway, glaring at him. "You were just going to take off without saying goodbye _again_?"

Jess shrugged. "I figured the last thing you needed was me forcing myself on your pity anymore."

"Yeah, well, I already told you I wanted my opportunity to beat you senseless, and I refuse to let you leave without due vengeance. So put that bag down, take off that _stupid_ leather jacket- which, you should know, is not adequate protection for an East Coast winter- and let me yell at you."

* * *

**A/N2-** A bit of a shorter chapter, unfortunately, but it was the best place to end it unless I wanted it to run for quite a long time. Next chapter is going to deal with The Issues... and then some, if things go as planned. Expect it either tomorrow or Wednesday. In the meantime... reviews are encouraged.


	5. Part Five

**A/N-** I meant to update last night. Sorry. But let's face it: you have no reason to complain. It's been less than 52 hours since my last post, you're _FINE_... No, seriously, I hated the chapter I had written, then was struck with a brief bout of writer's block. Plus, I'm not the best at writing fights. I tend to be a very neutral person. I'm like yogurt. You don't fight yogurt, and yogurt doesn't fight you. I don't know about fighting.

Mood music: Free Fallin' by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (which, frankly, should be on Jess Mariano's personal playlist that blasts from floating speakers whenever he walks)

* * *

_"Put that bag down, take off that stupid leather jacket- which, you should know, is not adequate protection for an East Coast winter- and let me yell at you."_

Jess meekly complied, letting the jacket slip to the floor. He left the jacket in the hall and skittishly approached her, eyes glued to a point about halfway between them, intent on avoiding Rory's basilisk stare. She pointed to the couch wordlessly, and he sat. She paced restlessly in front of him, still glaring. Jess felt like a small child made to sit in the corner as a punishment, waiting for a more severe punishment to be handed down. Rory studied him in silence, apparently waiting for him to speak first.

After a short time period, however, she gave up the waiting game and burst out, "What the hell are you doing back in town?"

"Liz called, said she knew where my car was," Jess muttered. "Thought I'd come back to get what's mine."

"Charming," Rory said bitingly. "So you didn't think maybe an apology was owed? You wouldn't come back for me or for Luke, but you'd come back for a _car_? That's great, Jess, that's just great."

"I figured I'd done enough damage. Luke didn't want me around, and as for you..." He trailed off. He really didn't want to explain just why he'd hoped to avoid her, both in his thoughts and physically, for the rest of his life. He wasn't willing or really able to reveal that much of himself, maybe even to her.

Rory gritted her teeth angrily. "Alright, let me see if I'm getting this straight: you run out on me, on _us_- without saying goodbye, I might add- then refuse to come back even to apologize because you think we just wanted you to stay the hell away? Because you figured it would be _better_ that way? God, Jess, that's not the way things work! Haven't you ever heard of _closure_? And then you were going to leave for a _third_ time with no goodbye? Are you socially stupid or something?"

He deserved her wrath, and he knew it, but all he could feel was that he was being attacked; his anger flared up and he leapt from his seat, saying fiercely, "Hey, at least I'm not some tease who strings guys along until she's gotten everything out of them she wants! How long did it take you to find some rich Eli to replace me, huh?"

Her reaction was swift and startling- she slapped him. When the sparks fade from his vision, she was standing very close to him, jabbing a finger in his face. "Don't you _dare_!" she screamed. "Don't you _dare_ accuse me of... of _that_! You know me better, or at least I thought you did! I have been _dead_ inside since you left! I have been trying so desperately to find a way to make myself feel like me again, but I can't! You broke my heart and it's not getting better and sometimes there are days when I don't even feel anything at all! So no, you don't get to accuse me of a damn thing!" Furious tears pooled in her eyes but didn't spill over and she poked him hard in the chest. "You ran away like a stupid coward and you took all the best parts of me with you! I can't read half of my favorite books anymore because they've got your writing all over them and I went and bought fresh copies but I can still remember every word you wrote in the margins and it makes me _sick_ to pick up a copy without your notes. I used to love the notes you would put in the margins, but now I hate them, because they're just one more reminder that I had everything I ever wanted and then you just took it all away from me! Everything I thought we had, everything I thought we could have in the future, and then suddenly, in less than two days, it all fell apart! We had a stupid fight and the next thing I know, you were gone and the rug was yanked out from under me and I fell down and I've just kept falling ever since and it hurts! Do you get that? It _hurts_!"

Some time during her charged rant, the tears spilled over. Jess, feeling his own eyes stinging a little, wanted nothing more than to take her into his arms and cover her cheeks with kisses to wipe out the tears, but it wasn't his place to do that. Not anymore. All his imaginings, all his little remembrances over the past few months were nothing compared to how much it hurt to see her crying and in pain and not able, not _allowed_ to do anything. Worse, to know that he was the cause of all this pain. He had never known he was anything more than just your run-of-the-mill uncommunicative boyfriend; the realization that he could have this kind of effect on her simultaneously elated him and filled him with tremendous regret.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "It hurts me, too."

Rory let out a choked, teary bark of a laugh, bitterness filling the sound. "You? How could you possibly know what this feels like? You're the one who left, not the one who got left behind wondering what she did wrong, wondering if there was anything I could possibly have done to make you stay. You're not the one who spent weeks blaming herself before Luke finally confessed that he kicked you out of the house."

Jess had to force himself to hold her gaze. He remembered something Luke said once: _you wanna have a relationship with someone, you're gonna have to learn to open up your mouth and say something_. And so he did just that.

"No, I don't know what it was like for you," he admitted. "But I know what it felt like on my end. I left to sort out all the shit that's going on in my head and maybe try and figure out what the hell I was gonna do with my life and you know what it all boils down to? I can't live without you."

She stared at him, blue eyes wide and wet and sad. "You have been," she said quietly.

"What the hell kind of life is that?" he asked. "Working wherever I can find money, barely making enough to afford a quarter of a shithole one-room apartment?" It was his turn to let out a bitter laugh. "That's not living. I left because I had to, because Jimmy showed up and I thought maybe... maybe if I get to know him I can figure out if there's actually any hope for me or if it's just hardwired into my DNA to be a fuckup."

Rory crossed her arms, staring at him. "And?"

"And we're different, me and him. The same, but different. I still don't have a fucking clue what I want to do... but I know what I want to be. I want to be the person you used to think I was. I wasn't that guy, and I'm still not, but I'm trying to be. I'm trying really damn hard to be better, because the only thing in my life that comes even _close_ to making sense is you."

He took a deep breath, fighting to let the words come out because even though he's known it for ages, long before he left, the words would never quite form themselves. This was the time, though. He was terrified, but he was equally scared of never having another chance to say: "I love you."

The tears were now coursing freely down Rory's face. "I know," she said. "You kind of said that last night."

Jess felt his face flush. "And if I didn't already know that I had the worst timing in the world..." he grumbled.

Rory sighed, meeting his eyes squarely. "Everyone keeps saying 'I told you so,'" she whispered. "Everyone keeps saying 'I told you he was only going to break your heart' and 'I told you he doesn't really care about you' and 'I told you he only wanted one thing; what did you expect when you refused to let him take it further?' I've been trying to listen to them because that would make it easier, and there's a part of me that believes that. There's a part of me that's probably going to keep on believing that for awhile. But the rest of me has just wanted to go curl up in a corner and cry because you're not here. I hate that you left. It's going to take me a long time to forgive you completely. But I guess... I guess I want to try. If you're amenable to it."

"Rory, I... you... I..." He was speechless. That had never happened before. Jess often chose not to speak, but the words had always been there if he decided to use them. Pretty quickly, he gave up trying and instead pulled her to him and kissed her fiercely, briefly, then rapidly moving on to kiss her forehead, her cheeks, the tip of her nose, as all the love he felt for her ricocheted around inside him searching for an outlet, any outlet. He found her lips again and gave her another longing-filled kiss.

When he finally let her stop to breathe she was laughing through her tears. "Safe to say you've missed me," she said, giggling.

"Of course I have," he said, the solemnity in his voice a strong contrast to her laughter. "I love you."

She hugged him, squeezing him so tightly Jess found it difficult to breathe. "I love you, too," she whispered in his ear.

Jess froze and pulled back a little, removing his arms from around her waist so that he could cup her face in his hands. He stared at her for a few seconds, taking in her tearstained face and smiling expression, then brushed his lips against hers softly in a kiss so heartbreakingly tender it almost made him want to cry. The kiss only lasted a moment, but it left him breathless with emotion he couldn't even begin to put into words and he rested his forehead against hers, trying to get a grip on himself. The only thing that made any sense to say was once again to breathe out, "I love you."

She let out another soft laugh. "I got that," she said. "But I feel I should give you fair warning that you're still gonna be in the doghouse for awhile, once I stop being so incredibly happy about this."

"I figured," Jess said, willing to take whatever punishments she can dream up as long as he gets to see her and kiss her and talk to her.

"And we're going to have to have a serious talk," she added. "We need to figure out how to make it work this time."

"I know," he assured her. "I'll... I'll do better about the talking thing this time. I can't promise to be good at it, but I'll try."

"That's all I ever wanted from you," Rory said.

Jess sighed. "I know that now," he told her honestly. "Last year I was so scared of losing you, I didn't want to you to know how much I'd screwed up towards the end."

She bit her lip nervously. "And what's changed?"

He shrugged. "I figure if you're willing to take me back after I acted like such a moronic little bastard, you'll maybe be willing to forgive my screw-ups in the future. We're right together, Rory. I know it. I just... I've been lost without you." That was all he could give her for now; the conversation had been the most open and the most emotionally draining of his life, and he hoped she knew that. From the sweet, understanding expression on her face, he guessed she did.

"That makes two of us," she said.

He needed to move the talk to something lighter, something easier for him to handle. "No, I mean I've been _literally_ lost without you," he said with a smirk. "One of the drawbacks of not graduating high school is they never bestow you with those all-important map-reading skills."

She slapped him lightly on the arm, trying to look annoyed but only managing to look monumentally kissable. "You're such a dork," she said, struggling with her smile.

Jess gave in to the temptation to help her with her battle by molding their lips together; it didn't seem to work because he could feel her smiling widely against his mouth. Her fingers snaked their way into his hair and he grinned, himself. It was good to be home...

The front door slammed open and Lorelai walked in.

* * *

**A/N2-** I'm not particularly happy with this chapter, as you might imagine. I'm not good at the screaming matches. In fact I'm quite bad at them. And it felt like my train of thought was all over the place here. It's not a BAD chapter, but it's not a GREAT one either, but after all the agonizing I did, I've finally given up. I'll save the bald-patch-making hair-ripping for my "serious" writing...


	6. Part Six

**A/N-** Sorry. My writing pattern got SERIOUSLY thrown off by a series of VITDLs (Very Important To Do Lists) drawn up by my charming and wonderful mother (who agrees with me- Rory doesn't deserve Jess. He's way too good for her) in order to prepare me for my SUPER AWESOME FRESHMAN YEAR AT COLLEGE! WHICH STARTS IN 16 DAYS, 3 HOURS, 43 MINUTES AND 14 SECONDS AT TIME OF POSTING! *has excitable freak-out!* *complete with multiple "!"*

* * *

Jess jumped away from Rory, all but tripping over himself to put a respectable distance between them, and if it weren't for the slack-jawed-but-furious expression on her mother's face, Rory would have laughed at his very apparent fear.

"Rory! Kitchen! Now!" Lorelai said in a deadly staccato of forced calm.

Shooting an apologetic look at Jess- her _boyfriend_, she thought giddily- Rory complied.

Lorelai then turned her sights on the former terror of Stars Hollow. "You," she said in a sharper, more angry tone, "Sit. Stay. Play dead, preferably, but I'll settle for the first two."

Jess planted himself on the couch and proceeded to grow roots. His expression said "Bite Me" but he was clearly all too willing to do whatever Lorelai asked at the moment.

* * *

Rory stood in the kitchen, clasping the back of a chair and bumping said chair rhythmically with her hip, watching nervously as Lorelai paced. After thirty seconds or so of taut silence, Lorelai stopped in her tracks and whipped around to stare at her daughter, incredulous. "Are you _kidding_ me?" she exclaimed. "Jess, Rory? _Jess_?"

"Don't do this," Rory said warningly, hoping to avoid a blowout with her mother.

"Do what?" Lorelai demanded. "Remind my daughter, whom I just walked in on kissing her ex, of all the horrible things said ex did while they were together? Am I just supposed to forget all the times you came to me or more often to Lane, furious or in tears because he didn't call, or because you had some fight and he walked out on you, or because he was being a stubborn ass about something? Am I just supposed to forget how he's a rude little jerk to everyone in the known universe? Am I just supposed to forget- and here's the kicker, mind you- that he pressured you for sex, busted up some guy's house when you turned him down, and then just took off without a word two days later? Well, news flash, Rory: I'm not planning on forgetting any of that! Someone has to remember, because you clearly don't!"

Rory crossed her arms defensively but stood her ground. "Stop!" she said forcefully. She was sick to her stomach of everyone, except perhaps Luke, assuming that because she chose Jess, she must have been tricked or deceived or manipulated. She didn't want to be treated as though she had no mind of her own, or couldn't make good decisions. It was time that she made that really clear. "Just stop, Mom! I haven't forgotten any of that. I remember better than anyone what he's done. But you should know better than anyone that people make mistakes, and sometimes really, really good things can come out of those mistakes! Look at me, standing here! I'm living, breathing proof of that, so unless you want to go back on what you've been telling me my whole life, I am begging you to just calm down and _listen_ to me!"

It was perhaps the first time in Rory's life that she had spoken so boldly to anyone, let alone her mother. Jess' past transgressions had hurt- in fact, they still hurt her, but less than they used to now that he was back and loved her- but somehow she still felt compelled to defend him, and the shock of it showed clearly on Lorelai's face.

The elder Gilmore took a deep breath, then sighed, sat down, and stared at her daughter. "Talk to me," she said quietly.

"We talked, Mom," Rory said, her voice more passive once more. "Jess talked to me. He opened up to me, he really did." She sat down, resting her forearms on the tabletop. "It's going to be hard. There are going to be issues to work out. I know that. He knows that. But we're taking that chance."

"And what if it doesn't work?" Lorelai asked.

Rory shrugged. "I really don't even want to think about that," she responded.

"You really need to," Lorelai began, but Rory cut her off.

"No, I don't. I'm really unhappy without him, Mom. This whole year since he's been gone it's felt like I'm just... numb. Empty. Bad. I don't want to feel like that anymore. I just want Jess. I love him."

Lorelai closed her eyes, silently willing the words coming out of her daughter's mouth to stop. It was finally happening. She was finally losing her baby girl. And the worst of it? She wasn't even surprised that it was Jess who was taking her away. "Figures," she said quietly. "Figures it'd be him to steal you away."

"What?"

Lorelai was smiling slightly as she looked at her daughter. "It's just... My baby's growing up," she said.

"Maybe, but you'll always be number one on my speed dial," Rory promised.

"Hug?" Lorelai asked.

Without wasting a second, Rory was up, scooting around the table into her mother's waiting embrace. "It'll be okay, Mom," she whispered. "I'll be okay."

Lorelai nodded, squeezing her tightly. "Just promise me you'll be careful?" she asked, leaning away to study her daughter closely.

"I will."

A mischievous grin unfurled on Lorelai's face and before Rory realized what was happening, she had raised her voice into a shout that could be clearly heard in the living room. "And use protection!"

"Oh my god!" Rory squeaked, slapping her mother on the arm and turning scarlet. "You're horrible!"

"That is my reputation." Lorelai grinned. "Seriously, I'm glad you're happy. I am. I just don't want to see you get your heart broken again."

Rory nodded. "Thank you," she said, still red in the face. "Serious talk over?"

"Yep, serious talk over."

"Good. Now, since you're refusing to call the window repair guys, can you _seriously_ go find Luke and get _him_ to fix the window so that we can stop dealing with this stupid tundra climate in the house as well as outside?"

Lorelai gave her a knowing grin. "You're only trying to get me out of the house so you can continue your makeout session with the Italian Stallion in the living room, aren't you?" she said as she headed for the door.

Rory turned an even deeper shade of red. "No!" she exclaimed, in a tone that screamed _Yes_. "And even if I were, that is not why I want you to leave. I want you to leave because the window is broken and it's very, very cold."

"And what warms you up better than some good lovin'?"

"Mom!" Rory gasped, pushing Lorelai into the entryway.

"Fine, I'm going, I'm going," Lorelai grumbled, and then the door shut behind her again.

Face still all kinds of flushed, Rory tentatively walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa next to Jess, who was fighting visibly to keep a straight face. "How much did you hear?" she asked in a shy voice.

"Before or after the not-so-subtle reference to birth control?" Jess asked, smirking.

She shrugged. "Either."

"Basically everything."

Rory buried her face in her hands for a moment, then sighed and sat back, leaning against him. "Ugh. I'm sorry. She'll warm up eventually."

"Hopefully this house will, too," Jess grumbled.

She leapt to her feet suddenly. "Oh, I'm so stupid!" she exclaimed. "You are going upstairs right now! You were so sick last night, sitting here in the freezing cold can't be good for you. Come on, it'll be warmer up in Mom's room." Jess put up no resistance as she dragged him upstairs, but when she told him to lie down in Lorelai's bed, he immediately balked.

"Rory, I can't get in your mom's bed!" he insisted.

"Why not?"

"It's weird! Besides, I'm fine. Headache, but other than that, I'm _peachy_, okay?"

"Headache, serious malnourishment- which, by the way, we're going to be instituting Gilmore Rules of Food to fix- and you're still all pale," Rory listed. "And it is _freezing_ in this house. You need to stay warm, and you need to rest. Alright?"

Jess just stared at her.

Rory rolled her eyes, took his hand, and forced him into the bed. Then she sat down on the other side, leaned against the headboard, and crossed her ankles with a cheeky grin on her face. "Now, what do you say you tell me what exactly you've been doing since you left?"

* * *

_Two hours later..._

Rory had gone in search of food, promising to be back within half an hour, and the instant she was out of sight, Jess had all but jumped out of Lorelai's bed. Despite having told Rory, in somewhat abridged fits and starts, of the events of the previous eight months, part of his mind was constantly occupied with obsessing over the fact that he was sitting in the bed of a woman who would probably assassinate him on sight, given the opportunity. In theory, it wasn't really that weird. In practice, it seriously freaked him out.

When he got downstairs, he found Luke fixing the window.

"Hey," he said cautiously.

Luke nodded, gave him a half-smile over his shoulder as he worked the broken pane out of the frame, and then refocused on the work. Jess approached, watching him closely. Luke reached blindly for the new pane, and Jess automatically handed it to him. Once the glass was safely affixed in the window, Jess handed over the decorative lattice that divided the pane into its four frames and held it steady while Luke reattached it.

Job finished, Luke turned to study his nephew, who mentally squirmed a little. Then Luke's mouth quirked up in an amused, friendly expression as he said, "You look like hell, kid."

"So I've been told," Jess said ironically.

"You doing alright? I assume so since you're conscious and walking."

"Yep. I'm good."

"You always were pretty healthy," Luke said with a shrug.

Jess nodded.

Long, appraising silence. Finally, Jess asked the question he knew he had to ask: "D'you think I could... maybe stay with you for a little while? Just a couple of months, 'til I save up enough to get my own place."

"She ask you to stay?" Luke asked.

Jess shook his head. "No. But she probably will. For some reason she seems to want me around. I'd like to be able to tell her something definite when she does ask." Luke chuckled, and Jess would've paid cold hard cash to know what was going on in his uncle's head to cause that reaction, out of everything.

"You want your old job back, too?"

"No. I need to figure this out for myself."

"You sure?" Luke asked. "I think you and Lane would make a pretty formidable team."

Jess was tempted to smile at the thought. They _would_ make a formidable team... provided she could be prevented from slitting his throat on sight. "Nah. I'll pass," he said firmly.

Luke shrugged. "Whatever you say," he acquiesced. "I should get back. Lunch rush will be starting any minute now."

"Okay," Jess said. Then, not really as an afterthought though maybe it sounded like it, he added, "Thanks."

The older man headed for the door. Halfway there, though, he paused and said, "Hey Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"Welcome home."

* * *

_Six hours later..._

"I can't believe they were just gone the rest of the night!" Lorelai ranted. "And we were stuck there with the rolling pins! God, _so_ boring!"

Rory winced at the memory of attempting to make small talk with her grandfather's airheaded secretaries. "I'm starving," she complained.

"What, the Possibly-Beef in Some Sort of Cream Sauce did nothing to curb your appetite?" Lorelai asked sarcastically. "What do you say to burgers?"

"Actually, I think I'll just go home and finish the box of raspberry Pop-tarts," Rory said, shifting her weight a little nervously.

Lorelai seemed torn between concern and mocking. "Oh, right, you've got to go play nursemaid. Go on then, run to your patient, Florence!"

"Don't tease, his temperature was going up again before we left! Besides..." Rory blushed suddenly. "It's Valentine's Day."

Lorelai looked at her with a grin on her face, but didn't say another word as Rory flew across the square, past the bonfire without a glance, and off in the direction of the Crap Shack. And who ever said Gilmores didn't run?

She caught sight of Luke across the square, talking to a shorter man with thinning hair and a memorable face. Realizing that she hadn't had a conversation with Luke since Jess' abrupt arrival the day before, she headed over to him, curious. She came within earshot just in time to catch the other man's parting shot: "Thanks. You're a dick."

"So, I only heard the tail end of that conversation, but I'm assuming you haven't changed your name to Richard?"

Luke shrugged. "Long long story, I'll tell you later. But here's a teaser: the word 'Etch-A-Sketch' comes up."

Lorelai made a vastly over-exaggerated 'interested face' and said, "I'm hooked!"

"That was TJ- you know, Liz's new boyfriend. I was giving him some grief over him and Liz breaking into your house this afternoon-"

"What?"

"Liz's concept of personal space is fuzzy at best," Luke said with a chagrined look on his face. "She decided she needed to see Jess to make sure he was okay, and it didn't occur to her that just walking into someone else's house might not be acceptable, even if you _do_ constantly leave your door unlocked..." Seeing Lorelai's mutinous expression, Luke seemed to realize that maybe now wasn't the best time to vent his overprotective frustrations and got back to the point, rant purposefully redirected. "Apparently my word that he's vertical and talking isn't good enough. Figures she'd choose _now_ to act like a mother, when it doesn't actually do much good..." He sighed again. "TJ, it seems, doesn't take well to being told that committing a felony- even a fairly innocent one- is a bad idea."

Lorelai groaned. "Please at least tell me you checked their bags before they packed up."

"Every one of them," Luke confirmed. Then he took a full look at her for the first time since the conversation began, and an unconscious smile slipped across his face. "You're all dressed up."

"Just for you," she said flirtatiously.

"You going somewhere?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Uh, well, my parents had a charity event, and, um, they needed a chair filled, and who fills a chair better than I?"

"No one comes to mind," Luke agreed. "That explains the empty house when Liz and TJ reenacted 'Home Alone'."

Lorelai shoved her hands in her pockets, smile slipping a little when she spoke next. "Jess and Rory are Jess and Rory again," she said.

"I kinda figured."

"Is that as terrifying for you as it is for me?"

Luke nodded. "I don't want to see either of 'em get hurt again."

"Have you talked to him?" Lorelai asked, sounding just a tiny bit desperate. "Do you know what his plans are?"

"He's moving back in with me tomorrow," Luke confirmed.

Lorelai's eyes widened and her eyebrows climbed up her face. "Oh," she said in a very different tone.

"He's a good kid," Luke said. "I'm sure you don't want to hear that, but... he is. Half the time I think he does the stupid things he does just 'cause he's scared out of his mind and doesn't know how to handle it. I've never seen anyone so damn determined to just take care of it all by himself."

She couldn't help but smirk to herself, thinking that Luke could be describing himself.

"And he loves Rory," Luke continued, uninterrupted. "I talked to him for a few minutes earlier this evening, and the poor kid's so far gone it's almost funny."

Now Lorelai was grinning outright. Even though the scared, overprotective part of herself wanted to cover her ears and scream "la la la" and insist that Luke was biased, she knew that she trusted Luke's opinion on this matter. He knew the taciturn, irritable teenager who had captured her daughter's heart better than anyone except Rory herself. If he said Jess' love was genuine, she believed him.

It was nice to know that her daughter would be loved as deeply as she deserved.

They had been standing in silence for a few moments while Lorelai digested it all, but suddenly Luke seemed to remember something. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a pair of crystal earrings and placed them gently into Lorelai's gloved hands. "Here," he said unceremoniously.

"Oh!" Lorelai gasped, holding the earrings up to catch the light of the bonfire. "Pretty!"

"Liz made them yesterday. She, uh, wanted you to have them," Luke said.

Part of her was surprisingly disappointed that they weren't an outright gift from Luke. He had given her things before- for her birthday, or for random occasions or for nothing at all- but he'd never given her jewelry, or anything else that could be considered even remotely romantic. As the word 'romantic' slid through her mind, Lorelai slapped herself mentally, and reminded herself forcefully of Jason.

"Oh, great," she said, almost (but not quite) disguising the disappointment in her voice. "Be sure to tell Liz thanks for me."

He nodded, and wordlessly, they turned together to stare into the mesmerizing flames of the bonfire, enjoying the other's silent presence and the town minstrel's sweetly melancholic tune.

* * *

When Lorelai arrived home an hour or so later, she heard voices coming from Rory's bedroom. A traitorous part of her feared the worst, and she snuck as well as she could to the door and peered through the slim crack.

Jess was propped up in Rory's bed, and she was sitting cross-legged at his feet in her Hello Kitty pajamas, smiling and laughing at something he had said.

"...And she really just sat in the closet all the time?" she asked incredulously.

"In the closet, under the tablecloth, in the kitchen cupboards... Jimmy had this old head lamp that he apparently got when he went through a spelunking phase back in '98, and she used it to read. I've never seen a kid read like that- by the time she gets to be our age she's gonna be the single most literate human being alive."

"I think I might have to meet this girl," Rory said, a contemplative grin on her face.

Lorelai was amazed to see the soft smile on Jess' face as well. In that moment, she thought she could see what Luke meant.

"Maybe someday you will," he said, looking at Rory with love clear in his eyes.

Lorelai suddenly felt that she was intruding on something private and maybe even a little bit sacred, despite the innocuous topic of conversation. Quickly and quietly, she backed away and ascended the stairs to her bedroom, feeling much better about this new (old?) relationship of Rory's than she would have believed possible when she had first seen them kissing this morning.

* * *

**A/N2-** One more chapter to go! Then I'll be back with Always and PH (and maybe some Glittery, if y'all are up for some Lane/Dave action...) Reviews = love, and love = more posting.


	7. Part Seven

**A/N-** Aww... I'm sad it's over. But maybe, just maybe, I can work in a sequel. (And I'm sorry that this chapter is so short in comparison to the last one, but what can I say? That's how I roll, apparently.) And just so you know, the episodes of Star Trek I allude to (very subtly, but that's me: subtle... NOT! Seriously though, this time I was subtle) are actual episodes, because I was raised by a pair of hopeless Trekkies and have memorized verbatim every episode in the original series plus most of The Next Generation... yeah, fail, I know, but at least I can converse with Luke!

* * *

Jess coughed, then sighed. "This sucks," he declared. "First day back with you and I can't even touch you because I'm all germy."

"Well, that's what you get when you walk ten miles in a snowstorm," Rory said. "What have we learned from this little adventure?"

"Leather jackets are not adequate protection from the elements," Jess said resignedly, with the air of someone who has been repeating this mantra for several hours now.

Rory nodded sagely. "Precisely." The movie they had been watching on Luke's microscopic television ended, and she got up to rewind the VHS tape (in addition to being tiny, the TV was also ancient, rendering her mother's rapidly growing collection of DVDs redundant). "What shall we watch now?" she asked. "Maybe some of those old episodes of Star Trek that Luke will deny having taped, despite his handwriting on the labels?"

"Sure, why not?" Jess said, settling a little further into the cocoon of blankets Rory had insisted on wrapping him in. He coughed again. "Stupid cold," he muttered.

"It's your own fault, you know," she said, but she was grinning. "I hope you're aware that the minute you start feeling better, you're going right back in the doghouse, Mister." Except they both knew that wasn't really true. Their less-than-glowing history wasn't forgotten, but it was forgiven. They were young and in love; forgiving was easy.

The only thing that was making their reconciliation less than perfect was Jess' headcold, which, frankly, was making him feel just a little pathetic (and not just because he couldn't kiss her). Rory, oddly enough, seemed in her element, insisting on pampering him and continuing to play nursemaid. He had half a mind to be irritable; he wasn't sick often, but he'd never actually had anyone to take care of him before, and part of him balked at all the attention. The fact that it was Rory fussing over him, though, cast the entire situation in a new light.

"There we go," Rory said, plopping back down on the couch next to him, holding the remote in both hands and pressing 'play' with an excited smile on her face. "Now we can finally figure out what Luke sees in it."

"_Space: the final frontier. These are the voyagers of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before..._" the television intoned solemnly.

Rory fought to hold in giggles and even Jess couldn't help but smirk.

"God, even the beginning is mockable!" she exclaimed.

"You expected anything else from Luke?"

"Be nice," Rory said. "He's letting you stay, isn't he?"

"I guess," Jess said. Again, Luke's advice about communicating echoed in his head and he rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. "Luke's a pretty good guy. It's weird having a... I don't know what you'd call him. Role model? I dunno. But he's been way better to me than I deserve."

Something went soft about Rory's eyes. "No he hasn't," she said earnestly. "He's just giving you a fair chance. Granted, he's Luke, so he's gone a little overboard with stretching the definition of 'fair,' but that's just Luke being-"

"Being Luke," Jess agreed.

She continued to look at him with that sweet look on her face. "I'm really glad you're staying, Jess," she told him.

He rewarded her with a soft smile, the only way he really knew to tell her that he was glad, too.

Then he sniffled a few times and Rory, recognizing the signs, grabbed a tissue and handed it to him just in time for him to cover a huge sneeze. "Ugh," he groaned, throwing his head back against the back of the sofa. "I hate being sick."

"I know you do," she said sympathetically. "Come here." She pulled him, unresisting, to her, and let him lay his head on her lap. He tucked his feet up against the armrest and surrendered to feeling stuffy and awful.

For a few minutes they were silent, watching Scotty and a nameless red shirt manage to create havoc on the bridge of the Enterprise. Rory's hand played absentmindedly with his hair, and Jess focused on the comforting feeling of her fingers brushing across his scalp. Then she said, softly, "Andrew told me yesterday he's looking for an apprentice."

"Yeah?" Jess knew what she was getting at. He wanted to think about it (preferably without being under the influence of Nyquil) before saying anything about it.

"Andrew likes you," she told him.

This surprised him. "Really?" he asked skeptically.

She nodded. "Really. You're quiet. You don't bug him. He thought the fake murder was hysterical."

Jess tried to contain a smirk.

"Gypsy likes you, too."

"Doubt it."

"I'm serious. She respects you."

He bit back a laugh, though oddly, he could see his take-no-shit attitude impressing the steely mechanic.

"And Miss Patty, too," Rory told him. "Well, actually, I think she just wants to sleep with you, but it adds up to the same result, so..."

Jess felt extremely nauseated, and this time it wasn't because Rory had forced too much cold medicine on him. "Do you have a point, Rory?" he asked, sitting up to look her in the eye.

She turned a little pink. "I just... want you to know that even though Taylor hates your guts, the rest of the town doesn't necessarily agree with him," she said. "I know that a lot of the reason you're coming back here is because of me. I don't want you to regret it. And I know how much you hated it before, feeling like everybody was watching us all the time. But not everybody's judging you. Stars Hollow needs you, as weird as that is. You kind of fit here. It might not seem like it, but you do, and even if people are distrustful of you, that's just because... well, that's sort of the role you fill. Just like Taylor's the crazy sweater guy with the gavel who nobody really takes seriously and Kirk is... well... Kirk, you're the bad boy from the city. And in time, you won't even be that anymore, you'll just be Jess. And I know you always say you hate this town, but I think you secretly want to like it, and I'm so glad you're back, and I really, really don't want you to be miserable here, because I-"

"Rory?" he cut in.

"Yeah?"

"I won't be miserable," he told her. "I was miserable in California and in New York, because I was missing you."

"Oh," she said, looking surprised and like she was trying very hard not to look too pleased.

Jess gave her a half-smile. "I'll deal with the psychotic townies," he said. She bit at her lower lip, and Jess had to forcibly remind himself that he didn't want to give her his cold in order to keep from kissing her. Instead, he lay back down, resting his head in her lap again. After a few moments he said, "And I like Andrew, too."

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said in an offhand tone. "He's quiet. He doesn't bug me. He apparently has a decent sense of humor."

Jess couldn't be sure, but he thought he could actually hear Rory's smile.

* * *

When Luke came upstairs twenty minutes later to deliver grilled cheese sandwiches, he found Jess fast asleep with his head on Rory's lap, and the younger Gilmore girl dozing as well, while Captain Kirk wrestled a giant lizard on the muted television. Both were smiling.

Luke grinned. He set the grilled cheese on the table and quietly backed out of the apartment.

* * *

**A/N2-** That's all, folks! (Okay, lamest and most-used closing statement EVER, but whatever. I do what I want! USA, USA, USA! Okay, that was weird. I'll stop now...) There might, if you ask very, very nicely, be a sequel someday. It might take awhile, given the fast-approaching start of university, but we'll see.


End file.
